A woman walks past a flower decoration in preparation for the upcoming May Day holiday in Suzou, East China's Jiangsu Province April 25, 2007. (Xinhua File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government on Friday announced a major overhaul of its national holiday system, canceling the May Day "golden week", but adding three traditional festivals as national holidays.

    The draft proposal worked out by a special panel after more than one year's research was posted on the Internet for public discussion.

    New Year remains a one-day holiday. The Spring Festival remains a three-day holiday, but it will now start a day earlier from the eve of the Spring Festival, also known as the lunar New Year.

    The National Day golden week will remain unchanged.

    The May Day golden week will be replaced by a one-day holiday.

    Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon-Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival shall all become one-day national holidays.

    The proposal will increase the number of legal national holidays from 10 to 11 days.

    The tradition of designating weekends on one side of the three main holidays as two working days still continues, so people enjoys even consecutive days off. In future, New Year's Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, May Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival will become holidays of three days each.

    Major Chinese websites, including Xinhuanet.com, Sina.com, Sohu.com and Peopledaily.com, have compiled a questionnaire to solicit public opinions on the draft proposal.

    More than 190,000 people had responded on Sina.com by 6:00 p.m., and almost 90 percent of them supported increasing the total number of legal holidays; 72.7 percent approved of the shortening of the May Day holiday and distributing the days to traditional festivals, while 21.1 percent disapproved.

    "It's good that the legal holidays better accord with Chinese tradition," said an Internet user under the name "From the Mountain" at the forum of Xinhuanet.com.

    However, another posting by "I Love North China" said only one day off for traditional holidays was meaningless for those who worked away from their hometown.

    "We still cannot go back home for a family reunion during the traditional festivals if there is only one day off," the posting said.

    Other Internet users also provided suggestions on the new legal holiday arrangement, including a week-long Spring Festival holiday, more days off for the Tomb-Sweeping Day and recommending no legal holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival.

    The submissions would be considered in the final drafting of the plan. If accepted, it could be enacted in time for the 2008 Spring Festival.

    Chinese people currently enjoy 10 days of legal holidays. Three days each are given for the May Day, National Day and Spring Festival breaks. One day is given for New Year's Day.

    The weekends on one side of the three main holidays are designated as two working days. It is normal practice to take those two days off during the following week making the May Day, National Day and Spring Festival holidays seven consecutive days each. They are known as the "golden weeks" as the holidays gave people time to travel.

    Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival are all lunar holidays, so their dates vary in the calendar (if a leap month is encountered, the legal holiday will fall on the first month). All other holidays are fixed dates on the calendar.

    An official of the special panel said the new plan took into account the following five principles:

    -- the number of legal holidays should accord with the current phase of economic and social development;

    -- the legal holiday arrangement should help pass on traditional customs and culture;

    -- the arrangement should minimize any negative effect on the economy and society;

    -- the arrangement should reflect social justice, allowing all citizens to share the achievements of economic and social development;

    -- the arrangement should fully consider citizen's rights to rest and travel.

    In the wake of economic and social development, Chinese people have been enjoying more days off.

    Before 1995, workers had 59 days off annually, including Sundays, New Year's Day and two days off each for Spring Festival, May Day and National Day. The government added Saturday as a legal days off in 1995, which increased the number of legal days off to 111.

    The number increased to 114 when the country introduced the golden week holidays in 1999. The new legal holiday arrangement, when enacted, will bring the number of legal days off to 115.

    "The new arrangement better respects people's right to rest, as there are now more holidays and they are spread through the year more reasonably," said the official.

    He said the new arrangement will be enacted along with regulations on paid vacations. It will ensure that people have enough time to travel, yet won't be traveling all at the same time.

    Employees can also arrange their personal and family lives in amore flexible way, the official said.

    "Making traditional festivals legal holidays will help carry forward Chinese history and culture, benefit 1.3 billion Chinese citizens, help build a harmonious society and enhance the cohesion of the Chinese nation," said Ji Baocheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and president of Renmin University of China in Beijing.

    China introduced the golden week holidays in a bid to boost domestic consumption. It was reported that tourism revenue increased from 14.1 billion yuan (1.76 billion U.S. dollars) during the initial 1999 National Day holiday to 64.2 billion yuan during the most recent golden week in October.

    In 2001 alone, tourist numbers reached 780 million, much higher than the 1999 figure of 240 million, while outbound Chinese tourists rose to 12.13 million in 2001, a huge jump from 3 million in the early 1990s.

    But after several years of experience and complaints about overcrowding, poor service, a scarcity of hotel rooms and damage to scenic spots, especially historic sites, during the golden week breaks this has spurred debate over the merits of the week-long holiday concept.

    In 2004, Professor Ji Baocheng took the lead to submit a motion on making traditional festivals legal holidays at the NPC annual full session.

    Last year, Cai Jiming, a Tsinghua University professor and a member of the national committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), also proposed shortening the golden week holidays and distributing the days to celebrate four traditional festivals: the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day and New Year's Eve.

    During their research, the panel had investigated holiday arrangements of other countries to learn from their experiences, consulted experts, the public, NPC deputies and CPPCC members, and conducted online and phone polls.

State Council publishes draft rules on paid vacation for comments

    BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Legislative Affairs Office of China's State Council has given the public ten days to make submissions on its draft regulations on paid vacation.

    According to the draft released Monday, all employees of government organs, civil organizations, enterprises, and public-service institutions are entitled to take paid vacation after serving the same employer for one year. Full story